


strung your heart up on a wire

by natromanoffs



Category: Camp Rock (2008)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 10:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19972546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natromanoffs/pseuds/natromanoffs
Summary: Mitchie Torres isn't a high schooler anymore. She's in college now, and things are different. Things change even more when Tess Tyler comes spinning back into her life.





	strung your heart up on a wire

**Author's Note:**

> camp rock fic in 2019? i can't believe it either

It’s not Mitchie’s fault that she doesn’t call Shane. Well, okay, it is. Because she could just pick up the phone any time. But, so could he. And he doesn’t and neither does she.

She loved Shane, really loved him. And she loved Camp Rock. But the two sort of went together. Sure, she talked to Shane in between summers, but they always had Camp Rock to go back to. And, now, without it, she’s not quite sure how he fits into her life.

She’s not a high schooler anymore. She’s in college now, and that’s a whole different space to be in. He isn’t. He’s touring with the band, because who needs college when you’re already famous? 

She now attends the Thompson School of Arts, and it’s wonderful. She’s majoring in songwriting, because you can do that here, and it fills her with excitement every time she thinks about it. She’s also joined the acapella group on campus, the Thompson Throaters. It’s an awful name, but they’re actually pretty well-known. She had to audition to get in, and her knees shook so bad, but she sung her heart out and now she’s a part of the group. Her roommate, Margie, is an artist, and says she’ll draw any artwork for any music Mitchie releases. Mitchie tells her she doubts that’ll happen, but still holds hope for it in the back of her mind.

She still keeps in touch with the Camp Rockers, they’ve all got each other on social media, but they don’t talk much. She just sees how they’re doing through their Instagram posts, which is how she finds out about Tess.

Tess, in the photo, has her eyes closed and a smile on her face. She’s not wearing makeup and her hair looks different. But the picture isn’t the important part, it’s the lengthy caption underneath.

I’ve got some news for you guys. As you know, I’d been attending Dartyoung University. But that wasn’t my dream. Those of you who’ve known me for a while know I’ve always dreamed of becoming a singer. But I was mean. I was a mean girl. I was catty and competitive. I acted this way towards many of you, while also considering you my closest friends. It doesn’t quite make sense. I thought maybe music brought it of me. I’d broke from that shell once but as soon as I got the opportunity I jumped to something bigger and flashier and better. I thought, maybe it’s the industry that’s making me like this. The music industry is a mess, it’s so competitive and can be awful at times. So I went to Dartyoung, hoping I was changing myself for the better in the process. I did pre-nursing, because that’s what every girl who doesn’t know what they want to do does. Although I tried my best, it didn’t work out for me. My grades were the worst they’ve ever been. And maybe I was less mean and less catty. But I also didn’t have any friends, and I was tired all the time. Life was hard. So I turned back to music. Just a little, just singing to myself in my room to have something other than pain to focus on. I recorded myself singing a Taylor Swift song and posted it to Instagram, because I wanted to show you all that in spite of it, I was still singing. Well, somehow, someone at The Thompson School of Arts found this video. And, for some reason, they sent me an invitation to join them at their school. I don’t know why, because my grades were awful, but I’m not saying no to the hand offering to pull me out of this. That’s why I’m delighted to announce that I will be transferring to Thompson, effective in the Spring. Yes, I’m transferring in the middle of the year, but that’s just how excited I am! I’m so grateful to get another chance to pursue my dream, and I promise I’ll try to do it better this time.

Mitchie just sits there for a few minutes after reading through it. The post seems oddly sincere, and she’s proud of Tess for sharing all that. Her account has quite a bit of followers thanks to her mom, so it’s not like she’s just sharing it with friends. She’s sharing all that with thousands and thousands of people. And she’s coming her. To Thompson. Mitchie’s not sure how to feel. On one hand, Tess is her friend, at least kind of. On the other, their friendship has never been something solid. Just because she’s on fairly good terms with Tess now doesn’t mean it can’t all go crashing down.

She tells Margie all this and Margie laughs at her for being so dramatic. Maybe she is being dramatic about this. But what if it throws everything out of whack? What if she and Tess get into a competitive thing again? If that happens, she knows she’ll be the one losing. Right now, she doesn’t have to compete. Not like that, at least. Not knives at throats, spitting words, nails cutting into your palms sort of competition. 

\------

The first day of the Spring Semester, there’s a knocking at the door. Margie’s out at some art students mixer, and Mitchie doesn’t think twice about opening the door, figuring it’s one of the girls across the hall who like to watch movies with her and Margie. It’s not. It’s Tess Tyler. Her hair is a little wavy and it falls just at her shoulders. She’s wearing some sort of designer jeans and a blouse that Mitchie swears she’s seen in a runway show.

“Hey, Mitchie,” Tess starts.

“Hi,” Mitchie replies, heart in her throat.

Somehow, they sort of become friends. Tess is focusing on singing, and Mitchie songwriting, so they don’t even have many spaces to compete if they wanted to. Tess introduces her and Margie to her roommate, Annalise, and the four of them start hanging out. They go to coffee shops and talk about their latest class projects. They go see the new Stars Wars movie together. They become a close group of friends.

At the beginning of Junior year, Tess comes to Mitchie with a suggestion.

“What if you wrote a song for me to sing?”

So Mitchie does. She wants it to be something that Tess can sing with feeling, but she’s gotta feel it too, so she writes it about their rocky relationship. Tess sings it at an open mic and Mitchie’s heart hurts as she hears Tess sing the words she wrote. Knocked you into the fire / strung your heart up on a wire.

When Tess sings the final note, the crowd erupts into applause and is on their feet. Tess is met with high praise when she steps off the stage, and she keeps saying “Mitchie wrote it.”

It’s Margie who, later that night, comes up with an idea. 

“That song went so well today,” she says.

Mitchie nods into her pillow.

“What if you guys just did that? Like really did that?”

And Mitchie barely has to consider it. Because however complicated it may be she knows that’s what she wants.

-

She goes to Tess the next morning, buzzing from head to toe. “Tess, that song.”

“ _Strung_? Yeah, the people seemed to like it.”

“Let’s do it.”

“What?”

“Let’s do it. Let’s make music together. I’ll write and you sing. I did some research, it’s not even that hard to get a song on Spotify.”

“Okay,” Tess says.

“Are we doing this?”

“We’re doing this.”

-

They do it. Mitchie writes song after song, trying to find ones that Tess can put her heart into. After a few misfires, they decide Tess needs to be part of the writing process. They spend many late nights together drinking coffee and racking their brains for rhymes. 

They get some music students to help out with the songs. Tess’s boyfriend is a DJ, so he helps as well. Mitchie’s not quite sure why her skin feels prickly every time she thinks about Tess’s boyfriend. Tess has always been a popular girl, of course she’d have a boyfriend. And, after all, Mitchie is still dating Shane, technically. They hardly see each other because he’s touring so much, and to be honest, she’s not sure she’s complaining. But on the off chances when they can meet up, his eyes are still as sparkly and his smile still as wide. She’s not sure why she doesn’t feel it anymore.

One night, she’s with Tess in the studio. They’ve just finished a song but are still hyped up on espresso.

“Mitchie,” Tess moans, from her place lying on the ground. “What if this isn’t such a good idea?”

“What do you mean? Our music’s awesome.”

“I know. I mean, I think so. But, you know. My mom. I’m still going to be living under T.J. Tyler’s shadow. What if I don’t live up to all those expectations?”

“Then don’t. What if you go by some other name?”

“What, like just Tess?”

“No, I mean, throw a word before Tess, or use a different name as your last name. Your middle name, or another family name, or something?”

The idea catches hold. Tess’s middle name isn’t something plain and common, like Ann or Marie. No, it’s Verena. So they make a new Instagram account @tessverenasings and release an EP to Spotify under the name Tess Verena. Mitchie Torres is listed as the lead writer.

Tess’s roommate, Annalise, is a photographer, and she took a photo of Tess that worked so well for the cover. She often used the girls as models because she didn’t have to pay them, and they were willing to do things that made them feel stupid in the name of art. In the picture, Tess is looking over her shoulder. The background is grey and snowy. Tess has got mascara running down her face, and her lipstick is smudged. It fits so perfectly. But Mitchie hasn’t forgotten that Margie was down to draw out a cover. They end up having Margie write on the title in flowy beautiful unique letters: _Dream, Redone_.

They can’t stop geeking out when they see the EP really up there, complete with songs such as _MEANGRL_ and _I Didn’t Mean to Break Your Heart_. The EP doesn’t go viral, but it gets enough listens that Tess cries about it. 

\--------

Mitchie breaks up with Shane. She tells him she just doesn’t think long distance is working out, that he’s away too long and she can’t be in a relationship where she never sees her boyfriend. It’s not the truth. The real reason is that she doesn’t feel that same glow she used to feel around him. She finds herself dreading his visits, because that’s when she has to pretend she’s still in love when she’s not. She hasn’t been since high school.

He gets angry, and hurt. Screams at her with tears in his eyes. She’s not sure if they’ll still be friends after this.

After he storms out, she goes to Tess’s room and lies on her bed.

“What are you doing on my bed?” Tess asks when she walks out of the bathroom and sees Mitchie lying there.

“I broke up with Shane,” she says.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Mitchie.”

“No, it’d been a long time coming.”

Tess lies beside her and holds her hand and she feels more like this than she’s felt in the last three years of her relationship with Shane.

She feels better after breaking up with him, lighter, like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. She floats through the halls and can’t stop scribbling in her lyrics notebook. 

When the album reaches ten thousand streams on Spotify, Tess pulls her into a hug. When she lets go she takes Mitchie’s face in her hands and says: “I can’t believe we did this.”

Mitchie thinks she must have written a hundred songs about the way Tess’s hands felt on her face and the way Tess looked into her eyes.

\-------

The first day of Senior year, Mitchie knocks on Tess’s door. They’d talked over the summer. Tess had told her that she broke up with her boyfriend. He was too selfish, she said, too conceited. They’d written new songs together over the phone. Mitchie had picked through the scraps of lyrics she’d written about Tess and wove them into something that they thought could be a single for the album. Yeah, they were working on an album. 

Tess opens the door, and smiles upon seeing Mitchie’s face. “I missed you,” she says.

Mitchie doesn’t say a thing. She’s been waiting for this moment all summer. Maybe longer. She steps forward, takes Tess’s face in her hands, and kisses her square on the lips.

Tess is surprised at first. She pulls away, face showing nothing but shock. But soon, they’re back to kissing again.

That day, they kiss until they run out of breath. 

\-------

They call the album _Dream Girl_ and Mitchie gets giddy every time she thinks about it.

**Author's Note:**

> this is unbetaed and i don't think i even read it over before posting so i apologize for any mistakes. not sure if anyone reads camp rock fic but eff it, i'm gay and i miss them so here we are


End file.
